Van Helsing, BioShock, Faerie Solitaire, Empire: Total War, Neil Gaiman goodness, and writing

It's summer, I have lots of free time and I'm going through games and books like crazy.

I finished The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing last week. I missed a whole bunch of Achievements cause I didn't explore all the areas thoroughly so I might do another playthrough later. As with Dishonored for which I recieved all the DLCs in a spontaneous gift, so another playthrough of Dishonored may come around soon. The final boss in Van Helsing was interesting. At first I didn't get it. I thought I had to destroy all the towers in order to destroy the boss, but it turned out I just ruined and Achievement and that it would be possible to just kill him as is. I thought the lower blue bar was mana and I had to destroy the towers in order to destroy his mana feed and then depleet his health. Guess I was wrong, but I know that now xD All in all I really liked the game. It was fun and easy to play and Katarina always commented everything in a funny way. Van Helsing has no sense of humour. I like Katarina :3

When I finished Van Helsing I started up the first game of the series in BioShock. I was quite nervous since I'm not good with shooters. I don't move enough and I always forget to reload. But I manage quite well. Right now I'm running around Fort Frolic and it's not until now that I've found the game creepy. All those statues that Sander Cohen makes everywhere, they creep me out. The first one I found was a three-piece in a flooded bathroom with bad blinking lights. Stuff of nightmares.

Especially that one but pretty much all of them have scared me shitless every time I've run into them. Cause I always imagine them moving if I turn around and I don't want to back out of the room cause then there'll probably be a splicer right behind me when I finally turn around and it'll give me another jumpscare. But except for those statues and the occasional jumpscare I don't find the game creepy. I actually like the slightly dark and twisted atmosphere and the 40's music - it's cosy. AND I LOVE THAT ONE VERSION OF BIG DADDY IS CALLED ROSIE!!!! :3 >w<
In the beginning of the game I was also very interested in Dr. Steinman's bloody messages:

You can watch me play some BioShock on my new YouTube channel. First part here. Second part here.

Anyway, I'm still playing BioShock, but it doesn't really work when you're tired so towards the end of the evening I always played some rounds of Faerie Solitaire. I've finished the Adventure mode now and all that's left for me to gain all the Achievements is to complete all the challenges. And I may do that at one point just to collect all the pets :3

Yesterday I only played Empire: Total War all day. It's been a while but I quite enjoyed it and I think I'll be able to win this time around. I'm still playing as the UK, but yesterday I wiped out the US \^o^/ I have pretty much all of the West Coast in North America and I've just moved to start taking over India. I'm gonna be the supreme ruler of all! :D

When it comes to books. I finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane in two days. Although it wasn't very long it still was a book that I found hard to put down. It emitted lots of emotions and the world felt empty and dull once I finished it. Really amazing story. A childhood story. The magical and adventurous childhood that many kids wish they could have - me among them. After I finished the book I moved to the second volume of Sandman. I love that comic. It never ceases to amaze me, which is great. I love how every story is stand-alone, but still has a slight connection to each other. A couple of days ago I finished the comic and moved on to Neverwhere. I've only just finished the prologue and almost the first chapter, but it seems just as interesting, spell-binding and exciting as all other Gaiman books :D Once I've read the book I'll also watch the TV-series.

All this reading got me into writing again and I've been on a roll. I've got lots of things that show up in my head out of nowhere and then I have to somehow fit them into my story. My story is coming along nicely and I'm approaching a turning-point. My goal is to have it finished before this year ends. You think I'll manage?